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One approach to learning the Ashtanga Sanskrit Vinyasa

Count..... Sanskrit Numbers and Vinyasa chart with states of
asana indicated plus 'meaning of asana'
John Scott recommends that we learn the Ashtanga
Vinyasa count, not just Teachers but all of us, for him the
count is a mantra, it focuses the mind.

"The Vinyasa Count, how did the Vinyasa Count come

to mainstream Ashtanga?"

"So what happened... In the early days of practice at the

Lakshmipuram Shala (the original Mysore Self-Practice),
we didn't know what Guruji was saying or meaning when
he directed to us "Catvari!". We thought "Catvari" meant
'jump back', because Guruji would say "catvari - jump
back". So we took that translation as 'jump back'. We took
'Panca' as upward facing dog. We took 'Sat' as downward
facing dog, 'sapta' as jump through - We thought 'Sapta' meant jump through!

It took us to Wake UP! To begin listening! To realise Guruji was actually counting in Sanskrit -4,5,6,7.
So it took a little student research to start the enquiry into Vinyasa. What did vinyasa actually mean.

Guruji called vinyasa "Counted Method" .

When my good friend Lino Miele was in France and witnessed Guruji counting the whole class through as One, he
saw it all come together, and he took this counting on as a research project to document the Vinyasa. Lucy and I
became involved with Lino's project and became very much part of Lino's book. From that point onwards I made it
my focus to learn Guruji's Vinyasa Count.

In Guruji's own book 'Yoga Mala' referring to the practice as a mala, a garland of postures, he refers to every
posture having a 'State' and every state or 'Asana' has a specific number of counted vinyasa to enter and exit all
choreographed to the Breath.
"The Vinyasa are all like beads, Choreographed breath/body movements, all to be counted and meditated on and
it is the students requirement to learn this Counted method as a mantra for their own personal practice"
John Scott, Winter, 2013 Stillpointyoga London

So it doesn't matter whether we ever intend to present a Led Ashtanga Vinyasa class in Sanskrit it can be
rewarding in and of itself. If nothing else there is no surer way to stop our faffing about than trying to stay on count.

A note about staying on count. The vinyasa count does not mean we have to rush in and out of a posture,
wrenching our leg quickly into half padmasana for Marichiyasana D, so as to to keep up with the rest of the class.
The count doesn't actually count each and every breath, there are 'official' extra inhalations and/or exhalations
built in, found/taken throughout the practice, this means that we can ourselves choose take extra breaths to get in
and out of a posture, paying attention to our breath as we do so, keeping it long and full as long as we pick up the
vinyasa count at the right place, at the right vinyasa.

Example. In Marichiyasana B we jump through on SUPTA inhale and are then supposed to bind in the posture
before exhaling ASTAU into the state of the asana, staying for five breaths. There is no reason that I can think of
why we can't step through, take two or three extra breaths as we bind into the posture and then, when we
are ready, exhale into the state of the asana mentally chanting Astau. It may mean we are behind everyone
else in a led room, they may be on their third or fourth breath count, that's OK we take just the one breath in the
posture and then come out with everyone else. At home we can take our time to bind and take the full five breaths,
or perhaps just three if we like to keep them long.

UPDATE more clarification at the bottom of this post

So here's an approach to learning the count.

One Approach to learning the Ashtanga Vinyasa Count.

The count here is based on John Scott and Lino Mile's books, Lino lists the count nice and clearly but John Scott
seems to go into more detail about each vinyasa as well as the extra inhalations and exhalations in a more detail
while still keeping it concise and clear. Full vinyasa is a wonderful practice, I don't find it any more exhausting than
half Vinyasa and if time is a concern just do half primary one day the second half the next. Practicing full vinyasa
helps make sense of half vinyasa. I have a post to come that goes into more details of how we go from one to the
other. this should of course not be considered authoritative there is no final authority on this other than the systems
own internal logic, the relationship between that and our own practice. There may well be some discrepancies
between this and the version taught by other senior teachers, whether it be Manju, Sharath or the certified,
authorised (whatever list) and unauthorised teachers. These discrepancies/differences should be a source of
interest rather than conflict. Feel free to point out any discrepancies between this and Sharath in comments, I am
myself exploring variations in the count between Krishnamacharya, Pattabhi Jois, Manju Jois Lino Miele/John
Scott and Sharath for my upcoming Easter retreat.

1. First learn to count up to thirty in Sanskrit ( see the table below), actually, up to twenty-two will do you for most of
the vinyasa. In fact, start with 1-9, that will allow you to work through Surynamaskara A.

1 = ekam
2 = dve
3 = trīṇi
4 = catvāri
5 = pañca
6 = ṣaṭ
7 = sapta
8 = aṣṭau
9 = nava

2. Practice some Sury's, mentally chanting the count (skip the five breaths in down dog so you don't forget where
you are).

Then, for a week of practice, mentally count yourself through all of your Sury's A and B.

Notice how we tend to go up on the inhale and down on the exhale, this is obvious perhaps but it will help locate us
in our count, it's like GPS Also we generally tend to inhale on odd numbers and exhale on even, more GPS

ekam - Inhaling, arms go UP

dve - Exhaling we fold over DOWN
trīṇi - Inhaling we flatten the back effectively coming UP
catvāri - Exhaling we jump back to Chatauranga ( kind of DOWN )
pañca - Inhaling we come through and UP
ṣaṭ - Exhaling, backside comes up and we effectively fold in to look at the navel (DOWN)
sapta - We jump our feet to our hands and Inhaling flatten the back as in DVE so UP
aṣṭau - Exhaling we fold over so DOWN
nava - Inhaling the arms come back UP

This is the end of the vinyasa, we drop our arms back down to Samastith, it's not counted.
3. Learn the number of vinyasas for each posture as well as the state of the asana ( see the table below)
often these are the same.

EG. Ardha Baddha Padmottānāsana to Marichiyasana C all have 22 * vinyasa, each with the actual state of the
asana being 8 and 15 (representing both sides of the asana).

4. We know the Sanskrit count now, we just need to know on which count we have to be for the actually state of
the asana.

We know how to count our way through our vinyasa ( from our Surynamaskara practice) and we know the state of
the asana we want to be in, any discrepancy means there has to be an extra breath or part of a breath thrown in
somewhere.

EG. In the Prasarita's we want to be in the state of the asana for TRINI, Jumping the legs apart is EKAM (inhale)
but if we fold straight over then we would be in the state of the asana on DVE not TRINI, that means there has to
be an extra vinyasa in there. DVE (exhale) would be folding over and putting our hands on the floor. We can't fold
in on the exhalation so there must be another extra inhalation, there is and it's not counted, we look up, flatten the
back and then TRINI (exhale) our head towards the mat and take our five long full breaths.

HALF VINYASA: Below is the full vinyasa count, half vinyasa is a short-cut version of the practice but the full
count is still implied. If we choose to do a half vinyasa practice we might not come all the way back to standing
samastithi after the some/all of the seated postures, only going back as far as Adho mukha svanasana (downward
facing dog). Despite this we would still begin the next count on SUPTA as we step or jump through for the next
seated posture just as if we had gone all the way back to standing and back.... we're kind of pretending. Learning
the number for the state of the asana helps us to understand where the short cuts of contemporary half vinyasa
Ashtanga are.

5. Work in groups, so just learn the vinyasa and state for the standing sequence for a week, then the next week
add on postures up to navasana, the following week work up to the end of primary and finally add on finishing.

6. Explore a couple of tricky vinyasa outside of your regular practice, just running through the count, perhaps in the
evening, so you don't disrupt your practice too much.

A book will help. John Scotts Ashtanga Yoga book is probably the best for outlining the vinyasas and explaining
what happens as clearly concisely as possible, but Sharath's book works well too, it'll help you work it out at least.
Both have a clear quick to check presentation for those practices when you still working it out and need to check.
Pattabhi Jois' own Yoga Mala will make it even clearer away from the mat.

This is also an excellent Vinyasa Count resource ( among other things) by Dr. Ronald Steiner and
team http://www.ashtangayoga.info/practice/

7. Practice along to some led CD's and DVD's. these help but really you have to work it out yourself. John Scott's
New app is good for this. Sharath's CD is excellent, just the postures and the count, no explanation, Maju's DVD is
of a led where every body repeats manju's count, excellent.

Counting In Sanskrit

1 = ekam
2 = dve
3 = trīṇi
4 = catvāri
5 = pañca
6 = ṣaṭ
7 = sapta
8 = aṣṭau
9 = nava
10 = daśa
11 = ekādaśa
12 = dvādaśa
13 = trayodaśa
14 = caturdaśa
15 = pañcadaśa
16 = ṣoḍaśa
17 = saptadaśa
18 = aṣṭadaśa
19 = ekonavimśatiḥ
20 = vimśatiḥ
21 = ekāvimśatiḥ
22 = dvāvimśatiḥ
23 = trayovimśatiḥ
24 = caturvimśatiḥ
25 = pañcavimśatiḥ
26 = ṣoḍavimśatiḥ;
27 = saptavimśatiḥ
28 = aṣṭovimśatiḥ

Sanskrit Numbers from here ashtangayoga.info

Ashtanga Vinyasa Count Primary Series

CODE
First number followed by * is the number of vinyasas
The numbers after the star are the states of the asana

So Jānuśīrṣāsana A - C 22 * 8 , 15 signifies that all three versions of

Jānuśīrṣāsanahave have 22 vinyasa each and that the states of the asana for each versions are 8 and 15 ( IE.
Both sides)

I've grouped asana that have the same vinyasa/state code to aid in memorising.

STANDING SEQUENCE

Sūryanamaskāra A = 9 vinyasa B = 17 vinyasa

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pādāngusthāsana 3 * 2

Pāda Hastāsana 3 * 2
--------------------------------------------------------
Uthitta Trikoṇāsana A and B 5*2,4

Uthitta Pārśvakonāsana A and B 5 * 2 , 4

--------------------------------------------------------

Prasārita Pādottānāsana A to D 5*3

--------------------------------------------------------

Pārśvottānāsana 5*2,4
Utthita Hasta Pādāṅguṣṭhāsana 14 * 2 , 4 , 7 & 9, 11 , 14

Ardha Baddha Padmottānāsana 9*2+7

Utkatāsana 13 * 7

Vīrabhdrāsana 16 * 7 , 8 , 9 , 10

PRIMARY SERIES

Paścimattānāsana 16 * 9

Purvottānāsana 15 * 8
-----------------------------------------------
Ardha Baddha Padma Paścimattānāsana 22 * 8 , 15

Tiryañgmukha Ekapāda Paścimattānāsana 22 * 8 , 15

Jānuśīrṣāsana A - C 22 * 8 , 15

Marīcāsana A and B 22 * 8 , 15
---------------------------------------------------

Marīcāsana C and D 18 * 7 , 12

Nāvāsana 13 * 7

Bhujapīḍāsana 15 * 7 , 8

Kūrmāsana 16 * 7

Supta Kūrmāsana 16 * 8

Garbha Piṇḍāsana 15 * 8

Kukkutasana 15 * 9

Baddha Konāsana 15 * 8

Upaviṣṭha Konāsana 15 * 8 , 9

Supta Konāsana 16 * 8

Supta Pādāñguṣṭhāsana 28 * 9 , 11 , 17 , 19

Ubhyaya Pādāñguṣṭhāsana 15 * 9

ūrdhva Mukha Paścimattānāsana 16 * 10

Setu Bandhāsana 15 * 9
FINISHING SEQUENCE

ūrdhva Dhanurāsana 15 * 9
-------------------------------------------
Salaṁbā Sarvāṅgāsana 13 * 8

Halāsana 13 * 8

Karṇapīḍāsana 13 * 8
-------------------------------------------
ūrdhva Padmāsana 13 * 9

Piṇḍāsana 13 * 9
--------------------------------------------
Matsyāsana 14 * 8
----------------------------------------
Uttāna Pādāsana 13 * 8

śīrṣāsana 13 * 8

Baddha Padmāsana 13 * 8
----------------------------------------
Yoga mudra 14 * 9

Padmasana 13 * 8

Uth Pluthi 14 * 8

A note on Drishti

Pattabhi Jois doesn't talk about drishti much in yoga mala, nor does Krishnamacharya, mostly nasagra drishti [the
gaze on the tip of the nose] or broomadhya drishti [the gaze between the eyebrows] is implied. however Pattabhi
jois does have this to say in relation to the 7th vinyasa of Surynamaskara B that holds for his whole system. Manju
Jois says nasagra drishti is a kind of default drishti but that we are also free to close out eyes.

"SECOND SURYA NAMASKARA, 7TH VINYASA

This is the method for the first Surya Namaskara, which is often practiced while chanting mantras. For this,
meditation is very important, as are the drishti, or gazing places, which include: nasagra drishti [the gaze on the tip
of the nose] for samasthiti; broomadhya drishti [the gaze between the eyebrows] for the 1st vinyasa; nasagra
dristri for the 2nd vinyasa; the gaze between the eyebrows for the 3rd vinyasa— in other words, for the odd-
numbered vinyasas, the gaze should be focused between the eyebrows and, for the even- numbered ones, the
gaze should be on the tip of the nose. In addition, for the even-numbered vinyasas, rechaka should be performed
and, for the odd, one should do puraka. On the whole, the method for doing rechaka and puraka is the same for all
the vinyasas and asanas ahead. A sadhaka [spiritual aspirant] should learn it with patience".
Pattabhi Jois Yoga Mala 1999 p46

A note on breathin g.

The breath is long and full and slow, "...like the pouring of oil". We seek to feel the breath at the back of the
throat, the slightest of constrictions to make the soft hissing sound or the sound of waves. Some refer to it as ujjayi
breathing others argue ( Sharath in particular) that it's not ujjayi because ujjayi implies kumbhaka (retaining the
breath in or out) and thus is a pranayama. It's argued that there is no kumbhaka in Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga vinyasa
therefore it should only be referred to as 'breathing with sound'. Krishnamacharya however, Pattabhi Jois'
teacher/guru, employed the appropriate kumbhaka in most asana and it could be argued that there is always the
hint of a kumbhaka between the inhalation and exhalation and the exhalation, the slight pause between the stages
of the breath, like throwing a tennis ball in the air there's a moment where it seems to hover before dropping back
into your hand. Either way the breathing is long and slow and full.

During the count in the state of the asana there is free breathing, Krishnamacharya wrote about inhaling and
exhaling ( long full and slow) as much as possible. In most seated postures the teacher leading the count will tend
to count to five ( it used to be ten supposedly and then eight, now it's five). You can take five short breaths in this
time depending on the speed of the count or, as I like to do, three long, slow, full breaths.

Remembering the names of the asana

Writing a blog helps

So does knowing what the different parts of the name means

Sanskrit Asana

Sūryanamaskāra
sūrya = sun
namaskāra = salutation

Pādāngusthāsana
pādāngusth = big toe
āsana = posture

Pāda Hastāsana
pāda = foot
hasta = hand

Uthitta Trikoṇāsana
uthitta = extended
tri = three
koṇa = angle

Uthitta Pārśvakonāsana
uthitta = extended
pārśva = to the side
kona = angle

Prasārita Pādottānāsana
prasārita = spread out
pāda = foot
uttānā = intense stretch

Pārśvottānāsana
pārśva = to the side

Utthita Hasta Pādāṅguṣṭhāsana

utthita = extended
hasta = hand
pādāṅguṣṭha = big toe

Ardha Baddha Padmottānāsana

ardha = half
baddha = bound
padma = lotus

Utkatāsana - Vīrabhdrāsana
utkata = fierce / powerful
vīra = hero

Paścimattānāsana
paścima = west

Purvottānāsana
purva = east / front

Ardha Baddha Padma Paścimattānāsana

ardha = half
baddha = bound
padma = lotus
paścima = west
uttāna = intense

Tiryañgmukha Ekapāda Paścimattānāsana

tiriañg = transverse
mukha = face
ekapāda = one foot/leg
paścima = west
uttāna = intense

Jānuśīrṣāsana
jānu = knee
śīrṣa = head

Marīcāsana
marīchy = sage Marichy
son of Brahma

Nāvāsana
nāva = boat

Bhujapīḍāsana
bhuja = arm / shoulder
pīḍa = pressure

Kūrmāsana,
kūrma = tortoise
Supta = sleeping

Garbha Piṇḍāsana
garbha = womb
piṇḍa = fetus

Kukkutasana
kukka + cock

Baddha Konāsana
baddha = bound
kona = angle

Upaviṣṭha Konāsana
upaviṣṭha = seated
kona = angle

Supta Konāsana
supta = sleeping
kona = angle

Supta Pādāñguṣṭhāsana
supta = sleeping
pādāñguṣṭha = big toe

Ubhyaya Pādāñguṣṭhāsana
ubhyaya = sleeping
pādāñguṣṭha = big toe

ūrdhva Mukha Paścimattānāsana

ūrdhva = upward
mukha = face
paścima = west
uttāna = intense

Setu Bandhāsana
setu = bridge
bandha = lock / seal / completion

ūrdhva Dhanurāsana
ūrdhva = upward
dhanurasana = bow

Salaṁbā Sarvāṅgāsana
salaṁbā = supported
sarvāṅga = all limbs

Halāsana
hala = plough

Karṇapīḍāsana
karṇa = ear
pīḍa = pressure

ūrdhva Padmāsana
ūrdhva = upward
padma = lotus

Piṇḍāsana
piṇḍa = womb

Matsyāsana
matsy = fish
Uttāna Pādāsana
uttāna = intense
pādā = feet

śīrṣāsana
śīrṣa = head

Baddha Padmāsana
baddha = bound
padma = lotus

Uth Pluthi 14 vinyasa

pluthi = jump / lift

I've added a pdf of this post to google docs, pages 6-10 are the count
http://tinyurl.com/l9cjxye

NOTE: As far as we can tell Krishnamacharya developed the vinyasa count, it may have been a way to manage a
large class of young boys or it may be something he inherited from his own teacher or perhaps a lost text, we'll
probably never know. He did appear to drop the count in his later years however Ramaswami told me that
although Krishnamacharya would link together postures if he was teaching one posture on it's own then it would
begin and end from standing or perhaps a seated samastithi, perhaps the count was always implied in his
teaching.

Does focusing on the count distract from the breath, not necessarily, after a while the count disappears into the
background, it is perhaps the horizon of the breath.

***********

UPDATE
This from comments

Anonymous28 February 2014 12:49

Can you explain further: "So Jānuśīrṣāsana A - C 22 * 8 , 15 signifies that all three versions of Jānuśīrṣāsana have
have 22 vinyasa each and that the states of the asana for each versions are 8 and 15 ( IE. Both sides)?"
Does this mean Jānuśīrṣāsana A has 11 vinyasa for right and 11 for left side, Jānuśīrṣāsana B has 11 vinayas for
right and 11 for left and Jānuśīrṣāsana C has 11 for right and 11 for left side, with the sides done alternately? Does
"8" mean right side and "15" mean left side?

Anthony Grim Hall28 February 2014 19:00

Hi Anon, I'm actually writing a post on How Full Vinyasa becomes half Vinyasa, looking at every posture in detail,
showing were all the extra inhalations and exhalations come in to make the system 'fit' the count. I'm doing it
because I'm not there in Japan with my wife to answer her questions about the count when they come up. This is
should be stressed is my own explanation as I seek to make sense of the development of the vinyasa count
historically, trying to expelling how it's been made to work, with it's extra uncounted inhalations and exhalations
snuck in here and there.
No it doesn't mean each side has 11 vinyasa, doesn't work that way. If you were to separate the sides up and come
back to standing after each side then they would both have 13 vinyasas. Confusing. Here's what I've written for
janu Sirsasana, all three are the same even though C is more difficult to set up, it's all done on one inhalation
whether A, B or C.
Reply
Anthony Grim Hall
Jānuśīrṣāsana A - C 22 * 8 , 15

CODE 22* = 22 vinyasa

8 = state of the asana on the first side
15= the state of the asana on the second side.

The count and the process is the same for all three Janu sirsasanas.

As with Ardha baddha pachimottanasana and Triyangmukha ekapada paschimottanasana the first six postures of
the surynamaskara are implied ( as if we really had worked our way down from standing samastithi). We are in
Downward facing dog exhaling (from the previous posture) which now becomes SAT we then jump through
inhaling on SUPTA and immediately, still on the inhalation, bring the right foot into our groin, heel to perineum, and
take hold of the toe of the other foot and look up, that’s all done on SUPTA. We exhale ASTAU (8) down into the
state of the asana, traditionally head to knee (it’s in the name) but these days chin to knee or head to knee and
then slide on to the chin. After our five breaths we sit up inhaling NAVA then take an extra uncounted
exhalation allowing us to lift up on the next inhalation DASA while crossing our legs. We Jump back EKADASA
and exhale into Chatuaranga. Up dog inhaling DVADASA, down dog exhaling TRAYODASA and then we are
ready to Jump through again for the other side inhaling CATURDASA setting up to lower into the state of the
asana, again all on on PANCHADASA (15). Now we repeat the exit, sitting up inhaling SODASA, the extra
uncounted exhalation again so we can lift up inhaling and crossing our legs SAPTADASA and jump back
exhaling into caturanga on ASTAUDASA. UP DOG inhaling EKONAVIMSATAHI (19) Down dog exhaling
VIMSATAHI
BUT VIMSATAHI now switches back to become SAT ready for the next posture.

If we were doing full vinyasa after VIMSATAHI we would jump the feet to the hands inhaling while looking up and
flattening the back EKAVIMSATAHI then fold over exhaling DVAVIMSATAHI (22) which completes the 22 vinyasa,
we just stand back up into samastithi (uncounted).

As with all these postures we notice extra uncounted inhalations and exhalations as we make the vinyasa ‘fit’ into
the sequence of breath and movement, remember we want to inhale up, exhale down.

Janu Sirsasana is quite straight forward but Janu C can be tricky, I have a dodgy knee and like to take a couple of
breaths while setting in preparation for the state of the asana. That’s OK, jump through on SUPTA and take a
couple of calm, steady, unrushed inhalations and exhalations while setting up all but the while saying to yourself
SUPTA SUPTA SUPTA. When you ready to lower, take a final inhalation saying SUPTA to yourself one more time
and then lower ASTAU into the state of the postures.

Coming out is the same come up inhaling NAVA and then take as many inhalations and exhalations as you need
to allow your knee to come comfortably out of the posture, all the while saying NAVA NAVA NAVA mentally to
yourself. When your ready take your exhalation, then back on count, lift up inhaling DASA crossing the legs and
jumping back.

Your Jump back might not be fully developed, that’s OK go through the motions preparing to step back while
inhaling on DASA then step back while exhaling EKADASA.